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[Dark Schala]

The soundtrack is on Japanese iTunes, at least.

GotY kind of takes a priority because I shoved it off until now, so I guess I'll post a writeup in the results thread. But it's very, very good.

 

[Yuterald]

Since I also just finished Attack of the Friday Monsters, I want to say: This has a surprisingly great soundtrack. Composed by Hideki Sakamoto and probably the total opposite of the SMT IV soundtrack.

Sadly, as so often, I couldn't find the music by itself on YouTube, but at least take a listen to the song from the intro.

I feel bad for not bringing this game up in both the GOTY and SOTY thread, but I just ran out of space and figured I'd focus on some other obscure stuff. I finished this game when it first came out and loved every second of it. The soundtrack really is nice too (I especially like the title screen/introduction music). The cinematic/cut scene music (particularly the stuff that plays when the boy and girl are together) is really good. I also love the ambiance, like when you're near that railroad crossing that's always flashing/active. Although they are completely unrelated games, the experience I had with Friday Monsters and the feelings/vibes I got from it were the kinds of emotions I wanted to get from Ni-no-Kuni...

Spoiler

Which is a game/RPG I don't really care for

but it didn't happen for me with that game. Sounds kind of weird but Attack of the Friday Monsters is exactly what I wanted Ni-no-Kuni to be. Does that make any sense at all? Hah!

 

[Jucksalbe]

Sounds kind of weird but Attack of the Friday Monsters is exactly what I wanted Ni-no-Kuni to be.

I agree. NNK was supposed to be a playable Ghibli movie and Attack of the Friday Monsters actually delivered on that.

 

[Nert]

The (not fully finished) results thread is now live!

 

[GhaleonQ]

I stopped playing video games this year.

I had never done so previously. This wasn’t 2006, where my favorite art form chased me back into the gaming past to neglect dispiriting console launches. I was ultimately rewarded there with a broader and deeper appreciation for what games could do. This was not last year, the 1st time I couldn’t support video games’ future full-throated. This year, I realized that the vortex of economic and organizational woes plaguing gaming had finally left me with more time than interest. I felt the need to “be informed,” clicking through websites out of habit or hope, but I boxed up my devices for 8 months. Why bother appreciating the form when the industry didn’t reciprocate?

The end of 2013 found me reengaging to attempt to answer this question. Let’s talk about redemption.

The story begins with Nintendo. The feeling I used to get when thinking of Nintendo was a stirring blend of nostalgia, joy, and yearning. At the age when Super Mario World dominated my daydreaming, Nintendo was the past, present, and future, and those warm feelings reflected that. As they drifted, I could still tap that emotion for fun, but it was a false pleasure. They welcomed me back to games this year, and I welcomed them. They ended my fast with Pikmin 3.
20. Pikmin 3/Pikmin 3; Asuka Hayazaki, Hajime Wakai, Atsuko Asashi; http://vgmdb.net/artist/14983
Rain (Morning Version)
Formidable Oak (Exterior, Plasm Wraith Battle Version)
Twilight River (Afternoon Version) The former Asuka Ota and company developed a less direct style than the melodic stunners of Mario Kart Wii or the cruise control of New Super Mario Brothers. The clarinets, spooky synths, and wood percussion are classic Nintendo, but hear what they’re doing with them. Off-kilter rhythms trip me up in Twilight River, Plasm Wraith Battle carries me on a tidal wave of bombast before casting me off into the air to fend for myself, and Rain grounds the game tweeness in melancholy, an apt summation of the actual gameplay. Thanks for returning, Pikmin. You’re never buried, of course, just waiting underground.

Yugo Kanno touchingly paints impressions of Rain’s redemption.
19. Rain/Rain; Yugo Kanno; http://vgmdb.net/album/41666
Little Lost Child
Raindrops, Footsteps
Darkness, Footsteps
Wheezing instruments like harmonium or horn are my favorites and would have been so appropriate for the game, so the featured accordion interludes were magical. Jacques Brel could have sung Little Lost Child’s melodic line and not improved on it. What a soundtrack cover, too.

Nippon Ichi’s been my bulwark against apathy for years now. They’ve gone from an all-too-trendy old school developer to a postmodern boundary pusher, one willing to help upstart developers like SystemPrisma. So, Tenpei Sato and I are best friends now.
18. Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness/Netherworld War Story Disgaea: Dimension 2; Tenpei Sato; http://vgmdb.net/album/36097
Brilliant Blue
Ray Of Light
Angel Smile
Watching them salvage hardcore gameplay from Japan’s current decay has been joyful, and “joyful”’s how I’d describe Sato’s influence on otherwise misanthropic games like Netherworld War Story Disgaea. No matter what meanness occurs in-game, moments like Ray Of Light’s heart-bursting horns and chime-tinged cello passage remind me that games can simply be fun! Brilliant Blue is Sato at his Iwadare-like best. I WANT TO PLAY LUNAR 3 AND 4 RIGHT NOW. Pure courage like that song’s will do that.

The need for atonement is just as important as having done it.
17. Inazuma Eleven Go Galaxy Supernova-Bigbang/Lightning 11 6: Galaxy; Yasunori Mitsuda, Natsumi Kameoka, Shiho Terada; http://vgmdb.net/artist/146
1
2
3
What’s going on with Level-5 here? New properties with repurposed Ghibli gameplay and yearly pony shows of classic titles have exhausted me. Placement on this list, however, means there’s still something potent about the series’ core aesthetic (and gameplay) ideas. As Sakuraba could tell them, sometimes soundtracks aren’t their own beast. Sometimes, they’re to distract players from realizing they’re experiencing the same thing they have before.

I’m a little shocked that Yuzo Koshiro’s Memorial Spot On GhaleonQ’s Soundtrack List is this low, but you saw what could have happened with Time And Eternity. It’s no Bayshore Midnight 4, but it’s rather terrific (no “comeback” qualifier).
16. 7th Dragon 2020-II/7th Dragon 2021; Yuzo Koshiro, Sasakure.UK; http://vgmdb.net/album/39643
Foremost Capital – Spiral Labyrinth
Underground Passage – Huge Ruin
Pedigree Of The Star
Let’s 1st acknowledge the tracks lengths for what’s now an excuse to market vocaloids. He’s not watering down his work. If Crystal Castles were as nice on stage as they are in real life, they’d make something like Pedigree Of The Star. Though I’d love for Koshiro to get like Yamaoka and incorporate more jungle and goth rock into his work, Underground Passage is harmonically huge without losing sweet melodies or forward rhythm. Foremost Capital should get Koshiro movie soundtrack work, but I can tell you it’s flawless in video games, too.

Jake Kaufman is always fun.
15. Mighty Switch Force 2; Jake Kaufman; http://vgmdb.net/album/39956
Exothermic
Final Level
Tally Screen
WayForward games tend not to be about atmosphere or breathing room. Sometimes, I want the good stuff and I want it on a conveyor belt. Kaufman obliges with disco rhythms, fantastic breaks, and synths so erratic I thought he pulled a Bioware-Sonic: The Dark Brotherhood and elbowed his machine. He actually got me to spend more time than necessary on a results screen with Tally Screen; it’s like Breakbot got to it. WayForward’s trash to some, but the Mighty series caused me to totally reevaluate them. They don’t do what I want them to do, but they do their thing correctly.

And, gosh, it’s not even the classic Sly Cooper composers who saved Thieves In Time for me, but I appreciate that they set the tone.
14. Sly Cooper 4: Thieves In Time; Peter McConnell, Michael Bricker; http://vgmdb.net/album/38367
Merry Old England
Samurai Swing
I Smell A Rat
Duckroll’s followers know to expect only cash-ins from resurrected properties these days, so can we take a moment to recognize that Thieves In Time was marvelous and that the jetsetting jazz was as good as it has ever been? And that being tasked with “creating jazz, swing, and bebop for a stealth-based platformer with some other stuff in and oh yeah everybody is an animal” is an incredibly difficult and specific job? Here is the greatest compliment I can pay those men: Merry Old England is exactly what saxophone should have sounded like in late medieval music.

Oftentimes, deliverance from the scrap heap is partial or not quite what I wanted. Iwadare showed up to the latest Turnabout Trial, and the game was a lot of fun. But watching a digital English version of “the guy from the other games” trump 4 and Turnabout Prosecutor 2 made this whole thing uncomfortable to me. You know what else made it uncomfortable? Horrifically ugly synth samples. What were you thinking, Iwadare?
13. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies/Turnabout Trial 5; Noriyuki Iwadare; http://vgmdb.net/album/40637
Pursuit - Pursuing On
Themis Legal Academy - Our Lovely School
Phantom: Unknown
Still, I’m not NOT going to put this on my list. Phantom is as ridiculous as that villain deserves, making a melange of end-of-game audio tropes. Themis Legal Academy has a harpsichord in it. Therefore, I will highlight it. Take note, composers wanting an oh-so-coveted spot on this list. And, shoot, Pursuit has always been more subtle than it gets credit for being. The background dynamics show that it’s not just LOUD, RHYTHMIC TRUMPETS over and over again and the drums bring a rock flair to the courtroom proceedings. I’m not sure why there’s a guitar at the fore for that bit, but it’s really great, right?

Speaking of partial returns, I wish Kobayashi was all over Crimson Dragon.
12. Crimson Dragon/Crimson Dragon; Jeremy Garren, Saori Kobayashi; http://vgmdb.net/album/42790
Sunrise
Skyborne
Fire World
What I have, though, is able conversation from Garren. Notice I don’t say copying. His solo tracks don’t resemble Panzer Dragoon much, but then this isn’t Panzer Dragoon. Combined, songs like Sunrise don’t get lost in empty “tribal” gesturing. They develop and they transport. The fizz at 03:40 on is a neat trick, and every choice on the song is tasteful. Rather than rising up and up, louder and louder, Kobayashi makes unexpected tonal choices and throws in new instrumentation to keep this from repeating. The song may not grab your attention, but it’s 1 of my favorite tracks of the year.

If you think this “redemption” repetition is a gimmick, please look at my number 11 choice.
11. Animal Crossing: New Leaf/Animal Forest: Jump Out; Manaka Tobinaga, Atsuko Asahi, Kazumi Totaka; http://vgmdb.net/artist/9567
K.K. Jongara
5 A.M.
K.K. Synth
I don’t merely mean the previous games. Do you know how few new songs there were in earlier Animal Forest titles and how many they cut out from the original each time? Nintendo wasn’t just lazy. They were malicious. So, the joy of the game was matched by the excellent music choices by the old gang, and, in fact, the hilarious aircheck “album covers.” 5 A.M. is far odder than it usually is, but think about it: if you’re up then, you’re stumbling before you’re walking. The Moskitoo-flair on the synths and marimba banging gradually find a rhythm until the whole track is up and at ‘em. I love it. Let’s get to Slider, the main attraction. I picked Synth for its glitch focus on the synthpop, an unexpectedly cool choice that’s reinforced by the Geskia/Madegg melody finding a sad place to rest. Jongara, Jongara, Jongara. Moon: Remix R.P.G. Adventure. Jongara. Jongara. Yes!

 

[GhaleonQ]

Some games need redemptions from their premises. Get this: Transformers, but made by 2012-2013 Square-Enix, composed by an okay Japanese animation person, and launched in arcades and the 3DS. Is this the worst possible idea?
10. Chosoku Henkei Gyrozetter/Super-Speed Transforming Gyrozetter: Wings Of The Albatross; Naoki Sato; http://vgmdb.net/album/40156
Sendai Wind
Oh; Cheery
There Is Something There
No! I won’t claim it’s subtle, though. I picked interesting tracks like the strolling, comical There Is Something There, but the whole thing’s more of a piece with Oh; Cheery. Still, I defy you to dislike the friendly handclaps and singing so simple you ARE PROBABLY DOING IT IN YOUR LIVING ROOM RIGHT NOW, AREN’T YOU?! More cymbal crashes! More pointless pop violins! I love it! Ahem. Sendai Wind’s the tops of this thing. I love passages that push you all the way into the arms of another, so the flawless guitar-piano/violin-clarinet handoffs make me smile. This is also the only song with an egg shaker that mattered, I believe.

Paul Ruskay’s VGMDB page is below.
09. Strike Suit 0; Paul Ruskay; http://vgmdb.net/album/37554
Main Theme
Memories Of Ishvara
Veils Of The Nebula
I wasn’t kidding about this theme of triumphant returns. What stuns me is that he’s not gesturing at the past, as I’d expect from a crowdfunded project. Veils Of The Nebula is totally impenetrable, hinting at motion but causing stillness. Memories Of Ishvara most evokes the composer’s Homeworld compositions for me, but Main Theme is something new. It’s like Ellen Allien’s Lism album, and is also way too good for what’s actually a good game. Please, link to the haunting vocals and pan-Asian beauty of this track. Let more people know about it.

May I remind you that it’s the generation of Nippon Ichi? This is actually by Apollosoft, ex-Flight-Plan people known for their tactics games, but they went full Vanillaware here.
08. Battle Princess Of Arcadia/Battle Princess Of Arcadias; Takashi Okamoto; http://vgmdb.net/album/40023
Vocal Song 02
B.G.M. 07
B.G.M. 18
On the audio side, however, Okamoto dunked on every lazy Capcom soundtrack of the past decade. My copy of the soundtrack’s not arrived yet, but the drum-and-bass couldn’t be lighter in Track 18, and the breather you get before the squishy bass reenters is much-needed. Track 7 waves hello to Nintendo’s composers as it makes a woodblock the lead instrument, dallies with a toy-piano-and-plucked-strings interlude before the main event. Harpsichord, yes! I adore the playful high tones coming on in the 1st set of measures, which matures into the flute backing. It’s like the game itself: a seeming waste of time that has hidden depths. Then, then, a track of the year shows up with Vocal 2. Tricot’s made me appreciate j-rock as a form, and this removes their math rock aspect of it to deliver a misleadingly simple “OMG BADASS ED SONG” from some junk show.

This may have been Nippon Ichi’s generation, but it’s Nintendo’s (American) year.
07. Fire Emblem: Awakening/Fire Emblem: Awakening; Hiroki Morishita, Rei Kondo, Yuka Tsujiyoko; http://vgmdb.net/album/37510
You Scum; Don’t Speak Her Own Words
Id – Purpose
Capital Chaos
Here is something I have never said about a Nintendo soundtrack, I believe: there is too much going on to break down properly. The long tracks deserve to be long and are used wisely in-game. They got a proper soundtrack release with awesome, long track titles. Um, Nintendo? Is that you? Why are you showing off quiet dignity with Capital Chaos, a percussion-free song that has striking phrasing and tone? Will the accordion jaunt, passion-filled voices, and stunning march cadence of Id – Purpose play in the newest Smash Brothers, and if so, will I be able to keep it together emotionally while bulldozing with Yoshi? Will “no items, Fox only, Final Destination, no sobbing, dang it” become THE meme of 2014? Were the Fire Emblem composers always able to do what they did with You Scum, and, if so, why don’t they do that all of the time? Though changes to the game didn’t always appeal to me, this is the definite Fire Emblem soundtrack, and it happened to a Famicom-old series in 2012/2013.

Being nice to Luigi means you’re being nice to me.
06. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon/Luigi Mansion 2; Chad York, Darren Radtke, Mike Peacock; http://www.melicthrum.com
Haunted Towers
E. Gadd
Library Piano
The composers at Next-Level are the least conspicuous to me, if I’m honest. I come to them for their reinvigorating gameplay, not their aesthetic tone. Well, maybe they were just meant for hokey haunted house music. Library Piano could be in the platformer Luigi earns someday, but its simple, stalking build keeps you on-mission. Professor E. Gadd remains 1 of the best songs Nintendo has ever published, and this version’s halting pace makes me grin so widely that I’m almost taken out of the desired mood. You’ll notice that these aren’t complex songs. Xylophone touches aside and clarinet solo aside, there’s not a lot to Haunted Towers. They’re perfectly targeted to their goals, however. I’m a little spooked, mostly amused, and totally concerned with Luigi’s wellbeing. Also, let me point out that Luigi humming along to songs remains the greatest, most Nintendo-y thing Nintendo has done with music. The Next-Level games did what their name promises. It took too long, but they resuscitated Luigi Mansion in a way that manages to top the original. The music’s right there.

I may need my own reviving soon. I…I think the Super Mario Galaxy soundtracks are just good as music and just okay as Super Mario soundtracks. My last words, as you all come to throttle me, will be, “Super Mario 3-D World’s soundtrack is the best he’s sounded in years!”
05. Super Mario 3D World/Super Mario 3-D World; Mahito Yokota, Toru Minegishi, Yasuaki Iwata, Koji Kondo; http://vgmdb.net/album/42692
Ghost House
Brigade
World 3
Desert
Mario handheld soundtracks seem designed to suck, though! I love what’s happened here. Nintendo’s composers pulled together a desert track that wasn’t Persian pastiche! It hums and has 1 of the best basslines of the year. World 3 could be a normal ice song, but the “whoa” synths, ambient percussion, and cool harp interaction differentiate it from what’s come before. Brigade is what all of those Super Mario Galaxy fans were trying to tell me about the Bowser tracks, wasn’t it? Well, the trombone, horn, organ, and harpsichord create something more pleasantly harsh here. What I’m writing is that they haven’t reinvented anything, but they’ve added innovation to what worked. Hm, what’s that? I listed Ghost House? *listens* Oh, it’s just 1 of the 10 best songs ever put in a Super Mario game. No big deal. This would not work in Luigi Mansion 2 and I’m not sure how it works in Super Mario 3-D World. It’s the same thing twice with straightforward accompaniment, but is it possible to be so tonally perfect that I can’t take criticism of it? The spooky beeps and boops add to heartwrenching top lines, but it’s still easy-peasy. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just that I played it as Luigi.

As Nintendo plummets from the sky, yen in flames fluttering in the air, let’s commemorate the mid-tier developers who have exploded before them. Cave, you seemed invincible. You kept costs low, did a weird, specific thing, played up fanservice, and survived. And now, what are you? Do you have an audial identity with Ryu Umemoto buried and missed?
04. Dodonpachi Saidaiojo/Angry Queen Bee Most Peaceful Death; Manabu Namiki, Yoshimi Kudo; http://vgmdb.net/album/32635 http://vgmdb.net/album/37708
Fissure – Stage 4/Fissure – Stage 4
Rainbow – Stage 2/Rainbow – Stage 2
Dead Point – Menu
Love – Stage 3/Love – Stage 3
I want to thank you for what you’re giving us in your dotage, however. The arranged console tracks, per Cave’s usual, add something to existing greatness, but let me focus on the arcade versions. Love is almost distracting in-game, and belongs more in a racing title. Let’s rave to its ringing chords, crystalline rhythmic structures, and pop-oriented yet never boring trance tropes. The best menu track of this year belongs to Yoshimi Kudo. If Kaito wrote pop songs, he’d write this lovely hum of an interlude. Stage 2 rips through me with razor synths before reassembling the groove in its middle sections. It perfectly encapsulates the cute-brutality of the series. The slow-motion ecstasy of the 4th stage’s background music remains the zenith. The guitar grounds the madness going on around, including the ghostly synth’s levitating, but it’s the percussion that’s coolest. It spends 1 minute trying to rev its engine, and then it’s total pleasure. And, screw it, listen to the console version. That’s what I want to hear of my game songs that flirt with the dancefloor. I appreciated other composers’ tributes to Umemoto, but this fun-loving, complex soundtrack by Namiki was the one he most required. He’s not here, but he’s honored.

 

[GhaleonQ]

Where I got truly frustrated with my fellow gamers, though, was the distraction console launches provided. The hypothetical realm allows for too many flights-of-fancy, too many invisible battle lines drawn. Thinking of what could be always distracts from what is. Sometimes, developers fall into that trap as well.
03. Final Fantasy XIV/Final Fantasy XIV; Nobuo Uematsu, Masayoshi Soken, Ryo Yamazaki, Naoshi Mizuta, Tsuyoshi Sekito, Ai Yamashita; http://vgmdb.net/album/39645 http://vgmdb.net/album/39581
Answers
Nemesis
Canticle
Llymlaen’s Veil
Boisterous Arbor City – Theme Of Gridania
Remember how this returned with a new core and a proper spectacle? Remember how no one over here cared? Let’s reestablish reputations. Nobuo Uematsu is not lazy, you jerk. You just played The Last Story and UnchainBlades instead of Sakura Note. Final Fantasy XI is 1 of his greatest compositions, but he refused to repeat himself here. The 3 XIV city themes don’t even aim for the majesty of the previous 3’s. Guess whether Gridania’s would have been a minor town theme in V or if it would have been the metropolis’. It’s friendly. It’s *gulp* fancy. It’s the sound of an actual city, not the one you pretend you’re in when you’re cosplaying. And, yes, there are woodblock hits. Llymlaen's Veil is tremendous, the one I’ll pick from A Realm Reborn. The first passage doesn’t so much surge as it does blast forward with horns and trombones. The ballad adds something new every moment, and the follow-up reminds me that this is an adventure! The choppiness isn’t cliche, because listen to that Middle-Earth-sounding bit after it. A bagpipe adds a moving contribution, and then the brass returns as Soken tries to make me cry. It didn’t work, but that’s something I want to hear each time I play the game. Canticle has no dumb Dragon Quest cliches about what religious music sounds like. It’s an attitude, not a preset, and Yamashita demonstrates that with mini-spurts of delicacy and purity. There remains melancholy, but there’s hope in those piano chords. Nemesis battles against the listener as much as it does the enemy. Could Sakimoto be jealous of those artful string flourishes and perfectly-produced snare beats? If not, I’m sure he’s jealous at 01:40, where the artsy stuff stops, unites, and gallops into the distance. Let me set aside a separate link for Answers at it deserves to be heard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Plp-6TF5U It’s the best vocal track in Final Fantasy history. It’s 1 of the best extended cinemas in the series, and certainly the one that rejects the Advent Children path. Nothing’s wasted, but it takes time to tell its story. It’s brutal, yet tasteful. Its bombast is, for once, held in check by people with clearer heads than those of Wada and his lackeys. More than any Yoko Shimomura previews or E3 trailers, Answers/End Of An Era gave me hope for the series’ future. “In 1 fleeting moment, from the Land doth life flow/Yet in 1 fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow/In the same fleeting moment, thou must live, die, and know.” Whew.

Nippon Ichi, you’re always good for a laugh, right?
02. The Guided Fate Paradox/The God And Fate Revolution Paradox; Takaha Tachibana; http://vgmdb.net/album/36506 http://vgmdb.net/album/36384
Destiny
Positive
Shintai
Sacredness
Mermaid’s Wish
Takaha Tachibana is just some guy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yōsei_Teikoku I don’t know why Nippon Ichi picked him other than Paradox’ spiritual predecessor also mixed it up. All I now know is that the game’s revivifying revision of ANIMEZ TROPEZ is carried through to its audio. Mermaid’s Wish, a chamber piece, tells a simple audial story: a mystic female battles against a united force. Sacredness repurposes “stupid, haunting chanting” from Japan’s interpretation of Christianity. It sticks it in a cave 50 miles below the ground. The vocals call back and forth from the pit, but my favorite is the 5 types of percussion used to develop the track into something more than ambience. Shintai, another religious piece, departs from Lutheran organ tradition to Catholic. Give me baroque any day, but the romanticism of the playing can’t be denied. Positive avoids easy compositional choices. The mount the opening scales is really only a prelude for an understated flute piece. The returning strings wrap the piece. They don’t send it into another place. That’s great! It works wonders! Every battle is not one’s last, and Tachibana captures the confidence where war is under control. Destiny is where things get dramatic. Different dynamics and contrasting tones between sections are utterly unsettling, but, as with all good conflict tracks, I’m essentially given confidence when the track resolves. 01:04 is a perfect moment for 1 of my favorite songs of 2013. Nippon Ichi, you’ve kept me in this video game thing for longer than I should have been. Tachibana, you’re odd, but I like you. Thank you for joining forces in establishing such a unique game.

Thus ends my “resurrection” narrative. A bunch of long-fallow franchises or composers turned out their best work in awhile. Should all of those have disappointed me, however, I know that someone always stands by as a savior. The story ends with Nintendo. More specifically, I write of its partnership with Alphadream. This necessitates the presence of my favorite, Yoko Shimomura.
01. Mario And Luigi: Dream Team/Mario And Luigi R.P.G. 4; Yoko Shimomura; http://vgmdb.net/artist/139
Dreamy Somnom Labyrinth
Try, Try Again
Rose Broquet
Ancient Pi'illo Kingdom
Welcome To Pi’illo Blimport
I won’t shove this into a preplanned classification to fit my little essays; Mario And Luigi R.P.G.s always have tremendous soundtracks. On the 3DS, however, a possibly anxious and bored Shimomura let her full creativity flourish away from Square-Enix. Welcome to Pi’illo Blimport faked me out with mellow Kingdom Hearts habits before reminding me of Nintendo fun with a cool clarinet, a playful flute duo, and, at track’s end, a heart-melting conclusion. Lovely. Ancient Pi’illo Kingdom irregular regality fits the series perfect. The pacing of the cello and supporting strings fits the locale, but the seesawing afterward for the woodwinds is something I don’t remember her doing before. The 3rd part is simply tremorous, but resets well. Rose Broquet has harpsichord. But, more than that, it’s not a stupid exercise in baroque imitation. Listen to how the song fills out between beginning and ending. Note how subtle the vocals are, never stealing stage time. Try, Try Again is easily the supreme battle theme of the game. Again, it’s surely Shimomura composing, but the 16th notes supplement her usual instrumentation, the break floats indecisively before deciding it’s going to be the happiest thing you’ve ever heard. I…I am beating up things as Mario And Luigi, right? Should I be this gleeful? The solo section at the end reminds me it doesn’t matter. I’m mostly here for Dreamy Somnom Labyrinth, though. Should she get a 2nd arrangement album, this gets track 1, track 2, and track 3. Her weird synth choice at the beginning lets you know this track is different, and that gets confirmed by the piano, electric bass, chimes, and bass interaction of the successive passage. Now deep into it, Shimomura enters the most dreamlike portion before the percussion drops out entirely. When the rest of the instruments return, they don’t stir you from slumber, they just reengage your full mind like the best dreams. Spectral high flourishes vaporize as soon as they appear, but it’s the piano you need to pay attention to the 2nd time through. It lets you down easily, seamlessly, such that you could listen to this song forever. Maybe in your dreams.

 

[GhaleonQ]

Apologies, all. Like so much of my video game time this year, this was sidetracked. I tried to make it worth reading late, and I definitely have so much to say about others’ posts. I’m currently sleeping on a workout mat, though, so unpacking takes precedence. (Sakimoto posts right above me! Argh!)

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Killer Is Dead/Killer Is Dead; Akira Yamaoka; http://vgmdb.net/album/40181 http://vgmdb.net/album/39945
Danger, Danger
King Of Ghost
Fire Dance

The Night Of The Rabbit/The Night Of The Rabbit; Tilo Alpermann; http://vgmdb.net/album/40708
Welcome To Mousemood – The Treetop Festival 2
Near The River
The Clearing Of The 1st Tree 1

Pokemon X-Y/Pocket Monsters X; Shota Kageyama, Minako Adachi, Hitomi Sato, Satoshi Nohara, Junichi Masuda; http://vgmdb.net/album/41066
Shala City
Battle; Fleur-De-Lis
Route 4

Etrian Odyssey 4: Legends Of The Titan/Yggdrasil Labyrinth: Legend Of The Giant God; Yuzo Koshiro; http://vgmdb.net/album/33201
Area 3 – Sacred Mountain Of Silver Wind
Labyrinth 2 – Nebulous Ravine
Battlefield – Faith Is My Support

Yokai Watch/Spirit Watch; Kenichiro Saigo; http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=125670
1
2
3

Nekketsu Koha Kunio-Kun SP: Ranto Kyosokyoku/Hotblooded Tough Guy Kunio: Fray Concerto; Kazuo Sawa; http://vgmdb.net/album/41158
Fray Concerto
Slugfest Special
Contest Program

Danball Senki Wars/Cardboard War Machines Wars; Rei Kondo; http://vgmdb.net/album/41501
Now, A Yearning In My Chest
Marching – War Game L.B.X.
New Model, Roll Out

Attack Of The Friday Monsters; The Starship Damrey; Bugs Vs. Tanks/Guild02; Hideki Sakamoto; http://vgmdb.net/album/38577
1
2
3

Company Of Heroes 2; Cris Velasco; http://vgmdb.net/album/40039
A Red Army Rising
Don’t Weep; That Time Has Passed
Footsteps In The Snow

Mario & Sonic At The Sochi 2014 Olympic Games/Mario And Sonic At The 2014 Winter Games; Yutaka Minobe, Jun Senoe, Mitsuharu Fukuyama, Hideaki Kobayashi, Yuri Fukuda, Chihiro Aoki, Tadashi Kinukawa, Ken Inaoka, Naofumi Hataya; http://vgmdb.net/artist/553
Super Mario World – Above Ground
Super Mario Land – Above Ground – Staff Roll
Diamond Dust Zone

The Legend Of Heroes: Sen No Kiseki/The Legend Of Heroes VIII: Trails Of The Flash; Hayato Sonoda, Takahiro Unisuga, Saki Momiyama; http://vgmdb.net/album/42419
Exploration
Eliminate Crisis
Belief

Gunhound E.X./Gunhound E.X.; Hyakutaro Tsukumo; http://vgmdb.net/album/34975
Big Pain
Howling Of Metal Hound
No Mercy

Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Last RangerThe Rolling Western: The Last Ranger; Kiyoshi Hazemoto; http://vgmdb.net/artist/6883
A Land Of No Tomorrow
The Saloon Feels Like Home
Arma-Mode Villany

Dragon’s Crown/Dragon’s Crown; Hitoshi Sakimoto; http://vgmdb.net/artist/112
Audio Joiner
Ghost Ship Cove – Route B
Town Theme

Tales Of Xillia/Tales Of Xillia 1; Motoi Sakuraba; http://vgmdb.net/album/27543
Determination – Jude’s Theme
A Mountain Village Dyed In Dawn
Crumbling Underfoot

 

[Yuterald]

Holy shit, one other person took note of Crimson Dragon, hah! It's cool that I'm not the only person who dug that game's OST (specifically the Kobayashi stuff). Great/fascinating post all around too!

 

[ColossalLazy]

Seriously, Gunhoud EX OST is amazing. I love it.

Thanks GhaleonQ.

 

[King Mac of Furry Frog]

I'd like to vote, but like a fool I waited until the last minute to compile my thoughts, so this post will lack detail. I'm unsure if my nominee is even eligible, being a translation of a game that's actually more than 10 years old. In any case, even if it's judged ineligible, I'll be editing this post in short order with talk and selections.

1. Saya no Uta - The Song of Saya

warning: a great deal of this game's content is potentially disturbing and parts are outright pornographic. Do not go googling this without care.

I have... quite a bit to say about this. Until later.

Like the game, some people might not even call it that, the soundtrack is hauntingly memorizing. Like a choir of angels singing a death hymn.

When it comes down to it, the story is a real tragedy. A fucked up situation no one really had control over. There are no "good endings", just one that depresses you the least.

 

[Slixshot]

Any idea when the results will be posted?

 

[Lemstar]

Any idea when the results will be posted?

They've been up for a while now. Not sure why there's no mention of it here, though.